The Wonders of Philadelphia City Hall (DATE CHANGE)

Nan R Gutterman, FAIA, FAPT , NCARB is the Director of Historic Preservation at VITETTA, a DRG Architects company with offices in Philadelphia and Camp Hill, PA, Somerset, NJ and New York City. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in architecture from the University of Virginia and a Master of Architecture from the University of Michigan where her field of study was historic preservation. She spent five years working on the restoration of the Main Building at Ellis Island before moving to Philadelphia. During her almost 40 years at VITETTA, she has worked on and is still involved with projects on many national historic landmarks in Philadelphia including Philadelphia City Hall, Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Reading Terminal Trainshed, now part of the PA Convention Center, and the Academy of Music for the 21st Century. She is currently working on the Exterior Restoration of the Fisher Fine Arts Library at the University of Pennsylvania, The Benjamin Franklin Bridge and updating the VITETTA Master Plan for Duke Farms, Doris Duke’s estate in Hillsborough NJ.

She serves on the Architectural Committee of the Philadelphia Historic Commission with six other professionals reviewing proposed changes to buildings individually listed or listed as part of a district on the Philadelphia Register. In 2017-2019, she served on Mayor Kenney’s Task Force on Historic Preservation. In June, she was recognized by the Preservation Alliance with the 2026 James Biddle award for lifetime achievement in the field of historic preservation recognizing her work on Philadelphia landmarks and her tenure on the Philadelphia Historic Commission Architectural Committee.

Greta Greenberger’s love of art, architecture and history goes back to her childhood.  She attended the Tyler School of Art and received a degree in art education at the Massachusetts College of Art.  Her journey has gone from teaching art at Portland, Maine High School for 10 years where she was hired to coordinate the National Endowment for the Arts Architects-in-Schools program in Philadelphia, to becoming the Exhibit Director at the Please Touch Museum.  She went to work at Philadelphia’s Foundation for Architecture directing their Architecture in Education and Guided Tours programs when Mayor Goode was seeking s. person to run the tours of the City Hall Tower. Finally, she merged all her interests in a single, extraordinary building, Philadelphia City Hall.  Beginning in 1991, over the course of the next 25 years, she evolved a comprehensive array of public educational programs and tours that combined civic history, dramatic architecture, extraordinary artwork and modern government. She directed the City Hall’s Visitor Center while recruiting and training guides.  She became the resident historian and curator of City Hall’s treasured narratives.  She served the public through five mayors and countless council members, judges and civil servants who inhabit City Hall. Greta was awarded the Preservation Alliance’s ‘James Biddle Award’ for lifetime achievement in historic preservation. She was the co-honoree of the AIA’s Paul Cret Award for the internationally recognized book “Architecture in Education.” In 2025, she and her husband Alan Greenberger received the Mary Werner Denadai award for civic leadership from the Preservation Alliance. She retired in 2018, but still gives tours at City Hall as a volunteer guide while training new guides.

Greta wrote a book called “The Splendors of Philadelphia’s City Hall, An Artist’s View” with watercolor paintings by Noel G. Miles. The book will be republished by the end of the year.